In the automotive industry, one of the most critical aspects of vehicle safety is proper light beam pattern, particularly when it comes to headlight bulbs. LED headlight bulbs have become one of the most popular choices for many car owners due to their efficient brightness. However, not all LED car light bulbs are created with a safe light beam pattern even though they produce extremely high brightness.
For the safety of you and other drivers, if you are going to upgrade your car light with LED headlight bulbs, it is essential to have a perfect beam pattern to ensure that the driver can see a clear and broad view of the road ahead.
Manufacturers use various techniques to optimize the beam pattern. But, what makes a perfect beam pattern of LED headlight bulbs in your car? What are the factors that affect the light beam pattern of LED headlight bulbs? And how to choose quality LED headlight bulb with well-defined beam pattern? Keep reading this passage, you will find the answers.
Types of Car Headlight Beam Pattern
According to the cut-off line of the beam pattern, it can be classified into two types, which are American standard light beam pattern (DOT), and European standard light beam pattern (ECE). These are the two common standard light beam patterns for most vehicles.
DOT Beam Pattern (America Standard)
The headlight is most American vehicles are designed to focus light in what is called a DOT pattern. You can see that the beam pattern has a sharp and defined upper cut-off light that prevents oncoming drivers from being blinded. The step around the center of the output puts more light on the road, so you can see farther without affecting other drivers.
ECE Beam Pattern (European Standard)
For the European standard ECE beam pattern, this pattern is most commonly seen with reflector-style light assemblies. The horizontal tangent line is on the left, while on the right it tilts upward for a longer distance, with a large vertical angle, so there will be more dark areas on the left side.
What Is A Good Light Beam Pattern of LED Headlight Bulb?
A quality LED headlight bulb should produce increased brightness while maintaining a safe light beam pattern. A good light beam pattern should have a sharp cutoff line that separates the high and low beams. The high beam has a focused light that reaches far down the road, and the low beam illuminates the road ahead in a wide and even pattern.
A well-designed beam pattern should also avoid creating any hot spots or dark spots on the road, which can be distracting and make it difficult to spot obstacles in the road. The light beam should evenly cover the entire road surface, with no patchy areas or uneven light distribution.
In contrast, a poor light beam pattern of LED headlight bulbs is uneven, unfocused, or improperly aligned. This can lead to several issues, including reduced visibility, cause glare to other drivers, and leading to accident on the road.
The two pictures below can clearly demonstrate the quality light beam vs. poor light beam when installed in a headlight.
(Good Light Beam Pattern VS. Scatter Light Beam Pattern)
What Affect a Good Light Beam Pattern of LED Headlight Bulb?
1. Car Headlight Housing
Reflector Headlight Housing
The reflector headlight consists of a bulb encased in a steel bowl. There are so many mirrors within the bowl to reflect light out onto the road. In reflector headlight, the LED bulbs are mounted in a bowl-shaped housing fitted with reflector bowl, reflecting light directly onto the road.
The LED bulb installed in reflector headlight housing will display a wide-angle, concentrated beam that illuminates further at night.
Projector Headlight Housing
The projector headlights have an added lens that works as a magnifying glass to increase the brightness. The projector headlight controls the glare light by using a cutoff shield which is designed to keep light from shooting up and towards drivers. In this way, the light goes down and towards the road surface.
Projector headlight is most commonly used in low beam, as the light reaches the left and right edges evenly with a tightly-organized beam.
2. LED Chip
The chip of an LED headlight bulb plays a crucial role in determining the light beam pattern. The chip is responsible for generating light, and different types of chip will have different impact on the beam pattern of LED headlight bulbs.
COB Chip
COB Chips are considered as the first generation chip for automotive LED headlight bulbs. Many customers prefer COB chip for LED headlight bulbs due to their affordability and sufficient brightness. Although the application of COB chip has shifted towards low-end LED headlight bulbs, it remains popular. COB LED chips offer uniform illumination, but they suffer from poor penetration and diffuse light beam patterns.
Flip Chip
The COB chips have gradually given way to Flip Chip. Flip Chip has small lighting points, which contributes to producing bright, concentrated, and intensive light. Thus, those LED headlight bulbs with flip-chip are likely to produce precise cutoff light on low beam and super concentrated light on high beam. Below is the example of flip chip LED headlight bulb.
3. The Arrangement of LED Chip
Single-Column:
These LED bulbs typically have three diodes arranged in a single row, typically in a straight line. This arrangement produces a focused, directional beam that can reach far down the road.
Dual-Column:
There are usually six LED chips arranged in two columns. This arrangement can produce a wider beam pattern with more coverage on left and right sides, while still maintaining good distance. It can also reduce glare for oncoming traffic.
Like NAOEVO NG LED bulbs, they deliver a wide, even, and focus light beam, making them one of the most popular car light bulbs around the world.
Dual-Column With an Additional Chip:
For this arrangement, you will see there is an additional chip next to the rectangular array of chips. The extra chip is design to avoid dark spot or glare.
LED headlight bulbs like NAOEVO S3, S4 and NA, they are designed with an extra chip so as to deliver a broad beam pattern without any dark spot and glare.
Arranged as Chinese Character “中” :
Usually, there are four chips arranged in a square shape in the center, with an additional chip right next to each end at the top and bottom.
This chip arrangement helps to deliver a wide and concentrated light beam pattern with clear-cutoff line so as to reduce the glare to others.
4. The Space Between Two Beads
Without doubt, the space between two sides of LED chip will also affect the light beam pattern of a LED headlight bulb. If you are looking for LED headlight bulbs that are able to deliver a perfect light beam pattern, it is important to consider they have a thin footprint in both sides of the chip just like the tungsten of halogen bulbs.
5. The Installation of LED Headlight Bulb
If you install the LED headlight bulb upside down or in a wrong way up, you will entirely change the headlight beam pattern. If the beams are pointing well below or above the line you’ve drawn, then you likely have your bulbs installed upside down. LED headlight bulbs have light-emitting diodes on opposite sides of the bulb, when you install the bulb, these diodes should be aligned horizontally at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock.
For single filament bulbs, the LED chips should always be in a side to side orientation. It means that you should have one side of LED faced at 3 o’clock and the other side faced at 9 o’clock. This will allow a nice and uniform 360° light distribution throughout the housing, creating an even and concentrated light.
For some LED headlight bulbs, you will see there are two diodes on each side, with one slightly above the other. These are called dual-beam headlight bulbs, they combine both low and high beam diodes all in one bulb.
Installing dual-beam headlight bulbs, the slightly higher diode should be on the upper side of the bulb. Besides, you can also find that these bulbs have a shield which helps to make sure the light is correctly directed. The shield should be at the bottom of the bulb.
Most high-quality LED headlight bulbs are equipped with standard mounts that help you install them correctly into the headlight housing. If you are still not clear, then check out our installing guide video.
Best LED Headlight Bulb With Perfect Beam Pattern
[NEW] NAOEVO NG LED Headlight Bulb – Mr. Eagle
Ultra-Slim Copper Substrate As Halogen
As we mentioned above, the thinner the space between the beads on both sides of the LED headlight bulbs, the closer it is to the size of the original halogen filament, the better the light beam pattern will be. In this case, NAOEVO has designed the NG LED headlight bulbs with 1.5 mm ultra-slim copper substrate so as to create a perfect light beam pattern — with clear and uniform cutoff line on low beam and focus light on high beam.
Besides, the upgraded copper heat pipes, high-speed fan and 1.5 mm slim copper substrate helps to conduct 30W of heat at a time. The efficient heat dissipation helps the LED bulb work at a safe temperature, so as to maintain a stable, and perfect light beam for a long time.
Upgraded Brightness
The chip of NG LED headlight bulbs is designed in a rectangular shape. This patented chip design from NAOEVO makes the LED bulbs to produce a wider beam pattern, which improves visibility on the sides of the road and reduces dark spots. With 6 high-intensity flip chips are clustered together, you will enjoy a more concentrated and uniform light distribution, allowing to see further down the road.
With NAOEVO’s latest optical technology, the NG LED headlight bulbs come with ultra-high brightness and excellent control over scatter light, making them one of the best LED headlight bulbs with safe and exceptional light beam pattern.
The Lighting Effect of NG LED Headlight Bulb
The NG LED headlight bulbs are considered to have the brightest and perfect light beam pattern on the market. Equipped with 6 pcs large size 70mil flip chip. These high-quality flip chips enable the bulbs to produce consistent brightness of 180W 21600LM per set. The 6500K color temperature which is similar to daylight and provide good visibility.
NAOEVO Max3 LED Headlight Bulb
Excellent Light Beam Pattern
Thanks to the proper arrangement of its lamp beads, Max3 LED car light bulb gives you a perfect field of view that is wider and more concentrated.
There are four beads in the middle form a square, which is conducive to producing further and more concentrated light beam patterns. The additional two lamp beads are located at the upper and lower ends, which is owing to wider and more uniform light distribution.
In this case, Max3 LED headlight bulb greatly combines the advantage of square and rectangle chip arrangement. Moreover, the reasonable array of light beads makes Max3 LED bulbs perform well on both projector and reflector headlight housing.
With this Max3 LED headlight bulb, you will have clean cutoff lines at the top of the beam, along with a spread that is wide enough to reach beyond the road. There will also be clearly defined hot spots that give you quality forward lighting so you can see far down the road. This perfect light beam pattern is what prevents oncoming drivers from being blinded by the strong light power.
The Lighting Effect of Max3 LED Headlight Bulb
Equipped with 6*60 MIL large size flip-chip, Max3 LED headlight bulb is able to produce a high output of 120W, 13000LM, which is four times brighter than a halogen headlight bulb.
Here is the lighting effect of Max3 LED headlight bulbs, for the low beam, there is a defined cutoff light along with a wide range of beam pattern that you can clearly see the green plants on both sides. And the clear cutoff line prevents the glare on oncoming traffic. For the high beam, Max3 LED bulbs are able to show you a focus and uniform beam that makes you see further down the road. From the high beam image, you can clearly see the street light on the left and the guide post in a distance.
Effective Heat Dissipation
If the temperature of the LED headlight bulb goes too high, it will seriously affect the performance of the LED car bulbs and even threaten the safety of the vehicle. Max3 LED headlight bulb is equipped with advanced dual-copper heat pipes to dissipate 20W heat load each time. The 6063 aluminum heat sink and high-speed mute fan help to circulate the heat faster which ensures a long lifespan of over 50,000 hours.
The cooling technology of Max3 LED bulb has been tested in real-life automotive conditions. So you can have confidence in their stated high performance.
NAOEVO – A Reliable Manufacturer To Produce Quality LED Car Light Bulb With Excellent Beam Pattern
If you are looking for high brightness LED headlight bulbs with perfect light beam pattern that won’t glare any glare to other drivers, we will highly recommend the brand of NAOEVO.
NAOEVO has spent 17 years researching and developing LED headlight bulbs that deliver efficient brightness and safe light beam pattern. Through their advance optics technology, NAOEVO ensures all the LED headlight bulbs deliver a beam pattern that closely mimics that of traditional halogen bulbs while provide upgraded brightness than standard.
Their in-depth knowledge of automotive lighting has made them establish a brand founded in the automotive lighting industry. Now, the NAOEVO has cooperated with over 40 distributors around the world.
NAOEVO welcomes both wholesaler and small retailers to partner with us. No matter the size of your business, we offer top-quality products, competitive factory wholesale pricing, and excellent distributor supports. Contact us today to learn more.
Final Words
In conclusion, a good light beam pattern is crucial for the effectiveness and safety of LED headlight bulbs. A well-designed beam pattern will provide adequate lighting coverage, minimize glare for oncoming drivers, and enhance overall visibility while driving. It is importance to consider factors such as types of headlight assembly, LED chips, space, arrangement of chips, and installation methods, etc.
Buying LED headlight bulbs from a reputable brand will provide you excellent brightness with a good light beam pattern, thus ensuring a safer driving experience for both the drivers and other road users.
